Deciding to purchase new furniture can be an arduous process; particularly if you are shopping on a budget. But there are furniture stores out there where you can purchase modestly priced furniture that looks nice.

However, if you are undecided where to shop or what exactly it is you’re looking for, many furniture websites are not offering decorating help. Whether it is articles and “how to’s” for decorating and design or online room planners to help you make the decision process easier.

Broyhill furniture offers an online room planner that walks you through creating an online layout of the room you want to decorate including dimensions, location of any doors, windows, fireplace and placement of furniture. You can save the planner and make changes to it as needed. It’s a handy tool that you can use time and again for each room in your home. Broyhill’s online room planner will help you create room plans for every room in your house—living room, dining room, kitchen, home office, bedroom and bathroom—when designing a nursery, keep in mind that baby furniture will be smaller.

Thomasville offers an Inspiration section that has articles on color and a “So You” quiz to help you determine what your style is. By answering a few questions, Thomasville makes furniture selections ranging from traditional to modern and points you toward furniture collections and colors.

Not satisfied yet? Although Ashley Furniture does not offer any online tools to help with the decision making, their website is easy to navigate and with so many locations to choose from, finding a location near you shouldn’t be too difficult.

If you are looking for outdoor or patio furniture, the best time of year to shop is September-October. Summer is over, the kids are back in school and the stores are gearing up for the holidays so the outdoor furniture will be on sale.

For the do it yourselfer or those who like to change things around, furniture stores like Value City, Cash and Carry, and Discount Furniture will have furniture that is often a return from some of the larger and better retailers, but for whatever reason was returned or damaged. Treating it like unfinished furniture, once it’s stripped down of course, and painting or staining the pieces along with applying different upholstery will give it a whole new look.

Lastly, what to do with your old unwanted furniture. Please don’t send it to the landfill. If it’s still in good condition, there are many agencies that would be happy to take your unwanted items as donations and pass it on to another family.